HEY TEACHERS! We’re growing our resources for educators and would like to hear from you about your experiences teaching Black history either in the compulsory or post-secondary sector.  What are some best practices you can share? What online and/or physical resources do you find useful. What have been/are the challenges of teaching Black history? Did the pandemic change the environment for content diversity for better or worse? Tag your posts with #BlackPastClassroom and let’s share resources with everyone!

Our first book is about the 19th century Bambara polity, Segu, written by the Guadeloupe-born French writer, Maryse Condé.

The year is 1797. A White man is spotted approaching the gates to the kingdom of Segu and Dousika Traore, the king’s most trusted court advisor, is summoned to the palace. His concubine Sira goes into labor while the entire household is away trying to catch a glimpse of the foreigner. Meanwhile, Samake, a fellow council member and Dousika’s arch-enemy, devises a plot to destroy him. Over the coming years, Tiekoro, Dousika’s first-born son covertly embraces Islam and travels to Timbuktu accompanied by Siga, Dousika’s son by an enslaved woman.  His third son, Naba is kidnapped by slavers and sold, while youngest son Malobali, who’s birth is over-shadowed by the arrival of the white man, becomes a mercenary, raping and pillaging his way through the Ashanti kingdom.

 “Condé’s Segu is a real place and her novel is based on historical events. What makes the book “classic” is her seamless blend of hard fact and mesmerising fiction.” Malcolm Forbes  (the nationalnews.com)

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